A Tragic Loss
Jewish Lives mourns the death of Zachary Simon Lerner, just 20 years of age, the beloved youngest son of Rachel Moses and the late Robert Lerner. Zac was also the greatly loved grandson of the driving force behind the creation of Jewish Lives, the late Roger Moses and his wife, Barbara.
A huge gathering of people came to grieve for Zac and to support his family, at his funeral service at the Auckland Hebrew Congregation’s Remuera site, then at Waikumete Cemetery, where he was laid to rest beside his father, and then at a minyan service at Auckland Grammar School’s Old Boys’ Pavilion. As his uncle, Marcus Tetro, observed, “I have never seen such a tsunami of grief wash through our small community.”
As all the speeches testified, though Zac was so young when his life so tragically ended through an as-yet not understood medical event, he was already a vivid personality who had made his mark in both New Zealand and in Sydney, where he was studying. A large cohort of fellow students from St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney came across the Tasman, testament to both the warmth and the vitality of Zac’s personality.
The tragedy of a young death means that people are lost for words. As Rabbi Moshe Rube said, “Just as Aaron, the brother of Moses, was struck mute at the death of his sons, so we are struck silent.”
Rabbi Rube noted that as we celebrated the very recent festival of Purim, we read the story of the heroic Esther from the scroll (megillah) that was donated by the Lerner family, and written by our own scribe (sofer), Rabbi Azriel Glick. The tradition is that the donors of such a scroll have the honour of writing (in Hebrew letters, of course) the last words of the scroll. Zac participated in this great moment. The last words are ‘zachor l’tov’ – be remembered for good. “We will remember Zac every year when we read those words.”
His deeply grieving older brothers, Jacob and Ben, recalled the brother they loved. Ben said he was known by the term his father used when Zac was a little boy – ‘the smiling assassin’. He was fiercely loyal to his family and his mates; he was competitive, especially at tennis, at which he excelled, and never backed down.
Zac was diagnosed at the age of six with Type One diabetes. His mother, Rachel, woke up twice a night, every single night, to check Zac’s blood glucose levels, until the time this process was automated. Zac himself, as he grew older, managed his diabetes impeccably.
Jacob, the oldest brother, spoke of Zac’s great enthusiasm for Auckland Grammar. “He was a huge Grammar man – a Grammar tragic!” But there were other aspects to Zac. “He inherited his street smarts from our father.” He also inherited a love of fast cars, fast boats and colourful language. Yet Zac was hardworking, with out-of-school jobs and tennis coaching during his school years, and had recently secured a job in Sydney.
Jacob spoke warmly of Zac’s role as ‘the glue and the communicator’ of the family and of his care for their father Robert, who passed away at the end of 2022, after a long illness. “Zac looked after Dad with the utmost grace, patience and respect and was devastated when Dad passed.”
Marcus Tetro concluded by paying tribute to Zac’s ‘massive persona, his effervescence, his quick, acerbic wit and his good heart’. “The cost of loving deeply is of grieving likewise.”
Followers of Jewish Lives will find many links between Zachary Lerner and people whose stories have been told on this site. On his father’s side, he was connected to the Fisher dynasty of Fisher and Paykel, which has contributed greatly to charitable purposes, through, inter alia, the Joyce Fisher Charitable Trust, which Robert Lerner chaired.
On his mother’s side, he is a descendant of the much-loved Rabbi Katz of Wellington, of the concert pianist Eva Stern Paykel, and of Sidney Moses (‘Mr Decimal Currency’). Zac’s maternal grandparents are Barbara and the late Roger Moses, whose stories can be read on our website, as can the story of Professor Eugene Paykel, Zac’s great uncle.
All of us here at Jewish Lives express our deepest sympathy to Rachel, Barbara, aunt Juliet Moses, brothers Jacob and Ben and all Zac’s family. We wish you Long Life and pray that you know no more sorrow.
Dame Lesley Max